In both cases, the top executive of the state decided, for plainly ideological reasons, that they would not take federal money for a transportation infrastructure project that benefits their state and its residents, and which would do much to stimulate the local economy.

In both cases the federal government was going to pay nearly the entire cost.

In both cases thousands of jobs are destroyed by their ideological intransigence.

Wingnut ideology does not pay bills or put food on the table for anyone but the wingnuts paid to advance such blather. People are hurting and this is let-them-eat-cake arrogant. These were projects straight out of the Keynesian how-to manual, and thus anathema to so-called conservatives for whom only tax cuts will do. Letting such projects go forward would have risked improving our fraying infrastructure, solving transportation needs, reducing carbon emissions, creating jobs and revitalizing the economy. It would benefit working Americans. So of course these projects had to be killed; if people saw government stimulus working they might demand more of it, and then how would we get more tax cuts enacted?

If it is true we get the government we deserve, and such imperious dimwits hold such high office, it doesn't cast a favorable glow on the intelligence of the electorate.